Acorn Personal Intelligence Frequently Asked Questions

1. What is Acorn Personal Intelligence?

Acorn Personal Intelligence is an offline AI assistant that runs entirely on your Mac or iPhone. Unlike ChatGPT or Claude, all conversations happen locally on your device with no internet connection required. Your data never leaves your computer.

2. How is this different from ChatGPT?

ChatGPT requires internet and sends every conversation to OpenAI's servers where it can be used for training or reviewed by staff. Acorn runs completely offline on your device. ChatGPT Plus costs 20 dollars per month. Acorn costs $9.99 once with lifetime access and no monthly fees.

3. Does Acorn work without internet?

Yes. Once you download the AI model during initial setup, Acorn works completely offline. You can use it on airplanes, in remote areas, or anywhere without internet access.

4. What are the system requirements?

For Mac: Apple Silicon M1 or newer, macOS 13 or later, 16GB RAM minimum with 16GB recommended, and 6GB free storage for the AI model.

For iPhone: iPhone 12 or newer, iOS 16 or later, and 3GB free storage.

5. How much does it cost?

Acorn Personal Intelligence costs $9.99 once on both Mac and iPhone. Acorn XL for Mac costs $19.99 once. There are no subscriptions, no monthly fees, and no hidden costs. You pay once and own it forever.

6. Is my data private?

Yes. Everything happens on your device. Your conversations, documents, and preferences never leave your Mac or iPhone. There are no analytics, no tracking, and no data collection of any kind.

7. Can I use this for work or sensitive information?

Yes. Because Acorn is completely offline and private, it's ideal for lawyers, therapists, journalists, executives, and anyone handling confidential information. Your data stays on your device.

8. What can I do with Acorn?

You can ask questions, analyze documents by dragging and dropping them, save your preferences so Acorn remembers important details about you, use voice input to speak your questions, listen to responses with text-to-speech, and use Deep Dive mode for extended research on complex topics.

9. How big is the AI model?

The Acorn Personal Intelligence model is approximately 2.5GB on iPhone and 3GB on Mac. Acorn XL uses a larger 7 billion parameter model that is approximately 5GB. You only download it once during setup.

10. Can I use multiple languages?

Yes. The AI models support over 20 languages including English, Spanish, Chinese, French, German, Arabic, Japanese, and many more. All language processing happens offline.

11. Does this require a subscription?

No. You pay once and own Acorn forever. There are no monthly fees, no renewal charges, and no premium tiers. Unlimited usage is included.

12. How is this better than free AI tools?

Free AI tools like ChatGPT collect your data, require internet, have usage limits, and can be shut down or paywalled at any time. Acorn is private, works offline, has no limits, and you own it permanently.

13. What is the difference between Acorn Personal Intelligence and Acorn XL?

Acorn Personal Intelligence uses a 2 billion parameter model optimized for everyday questions and runs on any M1 Mac with 16GB RAM. Acorn XL uses a 7 billion parameter model for deeper analysis and requires an M2 or newer Mac with 16GB RAM. Acorn XL is designed for power users and professionals.

14. Can I analyze documents with Acorn XL?

Yes. You can drag and drop PDF, text, or markdown files into Acorn's Document Library. The AI will read and analyze documents up to 10,000 tokens which is approximately 25 pages. This happens completely offline.

15. Does Acorn save my conversation history?

Acorn only saves what you wish to save, either by copying statements directly, or using the brainstorm feature. Nothing is uploaded to any server.

16. Can I use voice input?

Yes on Acorn XL and Acorn Mobile. Voice input allows you to speak your questions instead of typing. Responses can also be read aloud with text-to-speech. Acorn Personal Intelligence for Mac does not currently have voice input but may add it in a future update.

17. What is Deep Dive mode in Acorn XL?

Deep Dive mode tells the AI to provide extended, thorough analysis on complex topics. It's useful for research, strategic planning, or when you need more than a quick answer.

18. Will there be updates?

Yes. Updates are free and delivered through the Mac App Store and iOS App Store. New features and improvements will be added over time at no additional cost.

19. What if I have a problem or question?

You can contact support through the website at acornpersonalintelligence.com or email directly. Most questions are answered within 24 hours.

20. Why should I trust you with an AI assistant?

Acorn is built by an independent developer, not a big tech company. There is no business model based on data collection or advertising. The entire value proposition is privacy and user ownership. Because Acorn runs offline, there is literally no way to access your data even if someone wanted to. You are in complete control.

21. How can it be good if it’s not connected to the internet all the time?

The internet is increasingly muddied by hearsay and claims of questionable and unverifiable origin. Acorn Personal Intelligence relies on internationally respected open source data from educational, medical, and other institutions for data, serving as a clean wellspring of information. When updates occur, Acorn’s database is updated as well. This way, you get clean data, and updates that keep Acorn fast, and well informed.

22. Is Acorn as smart as cloud based AI?

Acorn personal intelligence contains enough information to rebuild civilization, even when it is comparatively about 500 times smaller than popular cloud based AI. It's important to consider that 90% of the queries. The average user poses to AI can be answered easily by acorn personal intelligence. However, it is not intended to replace all other resources, but rather fill in all of the spaces that cloud based AI cannot. For instance when the Internet or cellular data is down cloud based AI ceases to exist, and you do not have access to the service or information that you pay for, but because acorn lives inside of your phone or computer it's always with you and always ready meaning you can take acorn personal intelligence with you on any adventure around the world so we think it's sufficient to say acorn is small but mighty compared to other AI.

23. Isn’t AI really bad for the planet?

This is where Acorn Personal Intelligence really shines because it lives within your phone or computer, which means it can answer your questions efficiently, using far less energy compared to cloud based AI, which has to run at maximum power and capacity 24 seven even though the amount of power needed for your particular question might be minimal. Cloud based systems have to operate in such a way that they consume unbelievable amounts of freshwater and massive amounts of energy, so much so that the leading cloud based AI companies are now in the energy business moving to purchase power plants. It's estimated that by 2030, 4% of the world’s power will be consumed by roughly 5% of the world's population and we insist that we must do better for the planet. We've provided Acorn Personal Intelligence as a thoughtful solution to this critical ecological issue.